


Home and Heart

by Neuqe



Category: 9-1-1: Lone Star (TV 2020)
Genre: Established Relationship, Fluff, Future Fic, M/M, Married Tarlos, SO MUCH FLUFF, like five years ahead of canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-22
Updated: 2021-01-22
Packaged: 2021-03-13 23:00:23
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,672
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28911228
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Neuqe/pseuds/Neuqe
Summary: Written for day 4 of Carlos Reyes week: "you have come so far" + futureCarlos gets a job offer in a different city
Relationships: Carlos Reyes/TK Strand
Comments: 6
Kudos: 140
Collections: Carlos Reyes Week 2021





	Home and Heart

**Author's Note:**

> So I sort of forgot to post this before going to sleep, but here it is now

It’s already dark, but their backyard is illuminated by a string of fairy lights TK has managed to hang up on near the chutes of the house.

Carlos has no idea when he had the time to put those up because they definitely were not there in the morning when he left for work, and TK got off from his shift only an hour before him, but he also had picked up food from their favourite Thai restaurant.

They had eaten the food at their backyard, underneath the lights and the bright night sky. The weather is warm, and the gentle breeze doesn’t bother him at all. The yard is so quiet, he can only hear distant noises of cars, a few birds chirping in the nearby Cathedral oak tree, and slight sounds of the grasshoppers. TK’s grunting mixes in with all of that.

Neither one of them had wanted to go back inside, so he is sitting on a garden chair and TK sits on the ground in front of him, in between his knees and he keeps massaging his stiff shoulders. He had pulled a 24-hour shift, and the impromptu dinner date at the backyard definitely was a surprise for Carlos, a good kind of surprise at that and he had enjoyed it immensely, but he had been psyching himself up the whole day to have a certain conversation with him, but now he doesn’t want to break the serenity of the moment.

Also, he has no idea how to break the news to him.

“You’re thinking too loud,” TK murmurs at one point, startling him from his own thoughts. He had been just absent-mindedly staring at the star patter of his button-down as he worked on a particular muscle knot near his shoulder blade. “Are you going to tell me what it is, or do I have to guess?”

He lets his palms rest against his shoulder as he exhales deeply. He should have guessed he would see straight through him. After being five years together it shouldn’t be a surprise that he knows him, through and through.

“Yeah, I’ll just pick something up,” he says, placing a kiss on the top of his head as he gets up and heads inside. He walks straight to their bedroom, picks up an envelope from his drawers and returns outside with it.

Letting him read the letter feels like the easiest choice.

TK is already standing up when he hands it to him. He had already teared it open in the morning, so he just pulls out the letter and starts to read it. His eyes are moving fast across the page. He looks at him carefully, and the corner of his mouth keeps twitching and when he looks up from the letter, his face is lit up by enthusiastic and bright smile.

Before he knows it, TK is already pulling him into a tight hug. He laughs, sounding genuinely delighted and Carlos just burrows his head into his neck. “I’m so proud of you,” TK tells him, and he hears rustling of the paper and he thinks he might be reading the letter again, “I mean I’m always proud of you, but you know.”

He feels his fingertips stroking along his spine, and in return, he presses a kiss on his neck.

He has been offered a job as a detective. It’s definitely the next logical step on his career path, and he certainly has the experience and qualifications for the job. He likes being an officer, but he also knows if he really wants to make any change in the way police departments work, he has to advance on the career ladder.

“It’s in Dallas,” he points out, sounding almost remorseful to his own ears, too. It’s the only aspect of the offer that keeps bothering him. He obviously is flattered that they want to offer him the position and he knows he is great at his job but uprooting his whole life might not be worth of a job.

“Yeah, I read that bit,” TK says, and surprisingly he has no traces of hesitation or sombre in his voice. He pulls away from the hug, but still rests his hand on his waist and kisses him. It’s a quick and brief kiss, but still full of reassurance. “Congratulations.”

“Thank you,” he whispers.

He is the first person he has told about the offer, and he guesses it is only fair because his decision will affect his life, too, and while he was nervous about telling about it, he never expected him to get cross with him, but it still feels like a relief to hear his words of support and excitement.

“Do you want the job?” He asks, cocking his head to the side, as he studies him with his gaze. Any attempts of finding an answer in his eyes are futile. 

“I don’t know.”

It’s as honest answer as he can give. Sure, he has been thinking about promotion for a while and getting promoted to detective is in his plans but moving to another city definitely wasn’t included in his plans for the future.

Maybe if he were still alone moving away would not be such a big deal, but he is not alone. Still, sometimes unexpected things can be the best things in life. He certainly wasn’t looking for a relationship, but he still managed to find the love of his life on a call about a baby stuck in a tree.

TK hums sympathetically. “Is it about Dallas?”

“Yeah.”

He folds the papers carefully back into the envelop and places it on the table next to the abandoned takeout boxes. “I get that. It’s not an easy decision and I guess moving wasn’t in our plans,” he says, glancing at the dim yard that opens in front of them.

“Tell me about it,” he sighs out of frustration and rubs his face with his hands.

A couple years back, he had sold his condo. It was a bit small for two people, and they wanted to buy a house instead of an apartment, and it is exactly what they did. The house is not enormous, but it’s theirs and it has everything they need, and most importantly it’s home in a way that no previous place of his own has been.

He knows it’s only a physical place and lots of other great houses exist, but he has grown fond of it. It is such a combination of both of them, all the little details and marks they have left on it and its decoration. He knows his home is where his heart is and TK still holds his heart, and he can be happy wherever he is with him, but he still believed they would live there longer than a couple of years.

“Hey,” TK whispers, gently and Carlos lets his hands drop. “You’ve come so far with you career, and we have come so far, so I’ve got your back no matter what you choose.”

His voice is soft, but still determined and sincere and he doesn’t doubt for a moment that he wouldn’t mean his words.

He rubs his neck as he tries his best to flash a reassuring smile at him. “Yeah.”

TK gives a lopsided smile as he looks down his left hand and fidgets with the silver band that rests on his ring finger. “Besides, when I said I do I did mean that I’m always going to be in your corner.”

Carlos chuckles, but his gaze darts to his wedding ring, too. It makes his own ring feel heavier, in a good way, and he knows there is truth in his words, and he has proved it countless times already during the years.

They are a team, a great one, and he supposes they have been a team since the night of the solar flares, and while he knew the whole time that a job offer couldn’t derail what they have, he is still a bit overwhelmed how well he is taking it and the amount of support he is offering him unconditionally.

“That,” he says, nodding towards the ring he has put on his finger a little over a year ago, “doesn’t mean you have to potentially blindly follow me across the state.”

It’s about his career, and he knows that ultimately it comes down to him if he wants to accept the offer, but he knows it’s going to have to be a mutual decision. He is not going to force him to move into a different city and leave his family and a place he calls home behind, and especially if he is not completely in on the plan, too.

“Nope,” he agrees, “and I like Austin. Our family and friends are here, and it feels like home, but I also meant my wedding vows, I literally took them as an oath. And I intend to keep my word when it comes to you.”

TK wraps his fingers around his wrist and slides them lower so that he can intertwine their fingers. His hand feels warm against his and it is more comforting that he can even describe.

Their wedding was sort of small. Just their closest friends and family, all their loved ones in one place. It was beautiful ceremony and it felt like them, and they had gone big on the parts they wanted to, and one of those parts had been the vows.

Carlos had spent months trying to perfect his own vows, and TK’s vows still are absolutely one of the most beautiful and touching things anyone has ever said to him. He had teared up because his vows had been so full of love and it had felt a little surreal that he got to be in the receiving part of it.

A short part of the vows were in Spanish. Ever since their relationship got official, TK had gotten in his head that he wanted to learn Spanish, and while he didn’t have to and it hadn’t been necessary in any way, he had attended some online courses and done independent studying. It had been a slow process, and Carlos still wouldn’t call him fluent, but his skills are definitely more than decent.

Still, the idea that he had learned an entire language for him makes his heart flutter. His accent is still bit off, but it’s so incredibly endearing that he hasn’t had the heart to correct him.

Carlos still has the piece of paper TK had written the vows on, and he knows TK has kept his piece of paper safe, too. He can admit that he sometimes reads it through and wonders how in hell he ended up so in love and so lucky.

“So, did I,” he replies, gently caressing his thumb with his own.

He hasn’t read the vows he wrote since the wedding, but he still can recall them word by word, and he had been completely serious about them and meant every single word, and he had vowed that he would cherish his happiness and love as if it was the most precious thing in the world he has ever had.

He still wants to honour those vows and do exactly as he promised to do.

“I know,” he breathes out, “and if you really want to take the job, then you should. And if you decide to do that, then we’ll have a real talk and figure it all out.”

He kisses his forehead and lets his lips linger there for a moment. “I love you,” he whispers.

“So you have said,” TK tells him, with a dazzling grin on his face, and he knows they will be alright no matter what.

*****

Carlos has had the rule of keeping his personal and professional lives separate. After TK and befriending the entire crew of 126 had obviously blurred the lines a bit, and suddenly personal life made its way to workplace and scenes, and while he tried to stick to professionalism, he let the rules loosen up a bit.

When he realised that he kept casually running into his father-in-law and bunch of people who considered themselves to be equivalent of siblings of his husband, he had completely given up the distinction of work and personal life.

Let alone the fact that he kept running into his actual husband, who has Strand-Reyes stitched into the place of his last name on his uniforms. It’s definitely cramped there because the space for last name isn’t that big, but the sight of it never fails to make him smile.

So, as he has accepted that he half-works with people who he ends up spending all the holidays and most of his free time with, he longer feels awkward if he looks for TK once they have cleared up a scene.

They are once again on the same call. It’s nothing too messy, a car crash in the middle of the road. His partner is still directing the traffic as 126 is cleaning up the last of the debris and drying up some oil that leaked from another car.

“Hey,” he greets when he walks up to him next to the fire truck.

“Hey. How’s the most handsome first responder in Austin doing?”

Carlos grins as he glances at the ground. He briefly wonders how on earth he changed from making his own rules to separate work and personal life to shamelessly flirting with his husband on scene. “I don’t know, how are you doing?”

“Hah, real funny,” he shoots back, and his smile is bright, and he looks genuinely delighted to see him, even though they only saw each other six hours ago when they both left for their respective shifts.

He knows he could wait until they are both home, but their shifts overlap a bit, and he supposes this is as good moment as any.

“I turned down the job in Dallas,” he says, as he looks at Marjan and Mateo finishing up the cleaning process on the road.

“Oh.”

The uncertainness has now found its way to his face.

“It didn’t feel right to take it,” he explains.

The more he thought about it, the less he wanted to move. His parents and most of his sisters live in Austin or near it. Most of TK’s family lives there, too and he knows that he would have moved with him if he had asked, but leaving 126 behind would have devastated him.

Besides, he knows Austin like the back of his own hand. He knows people there and the communities and he is almost fond of his precinct too, and leaving all that behind felt just fundamentally wrong.

Dallas isn’t that far away, but it still hadn’t felt like the right decision.

“Okay.”

“I spoke to my captain, she said there should be job openings here within a year too, if everyone follows their retirement plans,” he adds.

“That’s great,” he tells him, with a low chuckle. “Are you okay?”

“Yeah, I’ve got everything I need right here,” he replies, pointedly looking only at him with fondness.

TK bites his lower lip as he laughs. “If you’re happy, then that’s all that matters.”

“I am.”

“Good,” he breathes out and grins at him before he reaches to kiss him, quickly and briefly. His work and personal lives are irrevocably intertwined, and he couldn’t care less.

“I’m still proud of you.”

He opens up his mouth to answer, but before he gets anything out, Judd interrupts them. “Hey lovebirds, break it up. We gotta go.”

He hears a collective groaning and exasperated sighs. “How long can their honeymoon phase possibly last?” Matteo complains. “Another five years?”

He laughs, but he sort of hopes he never gets tired or less delighted to see him. He still gets the same thrill as he did when he first saw him and realised that there was something worth pursuing between them.

“Be safe.”

“You too.”

**Author's Note:**

> I hope you liked it!


End file.
